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News anchor's son battles brain tumor

Atlanta news anchor, Ted Hall, shares the story of how his family is coping with his son's cancerous brain tumor and the important things in their lives that keep their spirits so full of faith and hope.

Fast is five years when it's your son, who has a cancerous brain tumor you thought wouldn't grow back anytime soon.

"That's one of the biggest disappointments is how quickly this next development came along," 11Alive morning anchor Ted Hall said. "We thought he'd be 28, 35-years-old."

Instead, just two months before his 17th birthday, Keaton Hall is undergoing his second brain surgery.

A lot has changed since we first told Keaton's story. The most obvious change is that he has gone from being a boy to a young man, from loving Guitar Hero to composing his own guitar music.

"I like the way I can just express myself through it," Keaton said.

Keaton had to give up football and cannot drive without Dad in the car because of the seizures, seizures that got worse because the tumor was growing.

"I'll go completely blind and then I'll collapse on the floor and then I black out after that," Keaton said.

"We were just on vacation two weeks ago and he's out there swimming in the ocean and I couldn't relax. I had to watch him the whole time. Water and seizures don't mix," Ted said.

Keaton's tumor, oliodendroglioma, is more common in middle-aged men. For that group, the tumor is often life-ending.

"They do think he was born with it because his optic nerve actually splits and goes around the tumor," Lesa Hall, Keaton's mother and Ted's wife, said.

On this second surgery, surgeons hope to remove all of the tumor.

"They can get it all, we don't have to do chemo, we don't have to do radiation, hopefully we'll go back to normal," Lesa said. "It's the closest thing to a miracle you can ask for."

Two days before surgery, Keaton and Ted played in a golf tournament for curing kids' cancer. They tied for first place.

"You try not to, but every once in a while, you'll wake up and your mind will be racing on the what ifs," Ted said. "What could happen, what if a little slip here? What if there's more that they don't know? In some ways it's harder this time. And I know it's harder for (Keaton) because he knows the ramifications. He gets it."

"It's still a little scary. I just have to lean my strength on God because I can't do this on my own. I can't make it through," Keaton said. "I just have to pray and I really believe that He will help me through it, and if that be in His plan, then I will get better faster."

And Keaton does ask God why, but not the way you'd think.

"What could it lead to in the future? What good could come out of it? And how I can use this to better myself in the future?" Keaton explained.

Strong faith, a belief that God will help this boy, almost a man, stay safe, and be brought through surgery whole and tumor-free.

"God loves him more than even I do," Ted said. "And whatever the plan is whatever the reason it's far better than any reason I could have."